Mr. Speaker, obviously the parliamentary secretary does not know what he is talking about. I will try putting it a different way.

By imposing on the users of Quebec's ports an unfair financial burden which is being used to meet a portion of the ice breaking costs for the ports in the maritimes, does the Minister realize he is seriously compromising not just the development of a number of St. Lawrence ports, but their very survival as well? Does he realize this?

Mr. Speaker, on September 29 the Minister of Health assured the House that a sewage problem at the home of Mrs. Geraldine Smoke of the Dakota Plains reserve had been fixed. Mr. Rogers of Health Canada stated that as of November 2 the problem had not been fixed.

Why did the minister say that the problem was fixed when it was not? When is he going to fix the problem for this ill and elderly woman?

Health Canada investigated the original complaint. A site visit and a letter from the homeowner confirmed that this earlier problem had been corrected. Health Canada has since received a new letter of complaint regarding other problems with a different homeowner within this tribal council. An official has investigated this new problem and is currently working with the band and council to correct the matter.

Those are the facts. The hon. member should be assured that Health Canada is looking after the problem.

Mr. Speaker, this government pays less than 15% of health care costs in this country, but it still wants the control. The largest RCMP detachment in Canada is in my constituency of Surrey. The federal government pays only 10% of the costs but it still wants the control.

I ask the Prime Minister if the government is not prepared to pay its fair share of the costs, when will it transfer control to the people who pay the bills?

Mr. Speaker, the member of Abitibi has had his picture taken with hepatitis C victims and is telling anyone in his riding who wants to listen that the government is preparing to announce its generous compensation to them.

My question is for the Minister of Health. Are we to understand that the federal government has finally decided to respond positively to the request of B.C., Ontario and Quebec and compensate victims without regard to date?

Mr. Speaker, as I have already said here in this House, I informed my colleagues in September of the offer by the Government of Canada to share the cost of all the medical services required in the treatment of the hepatitis C infection among the people who contracted the disease through our blood system.

This is our offer, to make sure the sick receive treatment and the necessary medical services. This is the position of the Government of Canada, and it is a—

When the Prime Minister made the announcement he indicated a process that really began in Vancouver to enlist the participation of civil groups. That has been followed by the active role of the minister of state for women's affairs in leading a ministerial delegation to ensure that women are fully engaged in the APEC process.

The Minister for International Trade and I will be taking an initiative in Malaysia to ensure that civil society is brought into the APEC process so there can be full and broad—

Mr. Speaker, the minister of agriculture said on national TV that we cannot plan for the crisis that we have in agriculture right now. Well, we can plan.

Starting with the 1993 election campaign and then the debate leading up to the abolishment of the Crow benefit, legislation the government passed in 1995, Reform called for part of the value of the Crow benefit to go into a fund that would help farmers deal with these tough times. It would compensate farmers for a loss in value due to unfair trade practices. That is exactly what is happening now.

Mr. Speaker, the federal government put $600 million a year into the safety net envelope for planning for these types of unfortunate situations. The provincial governments put in $400 million a year and the Canadian producers also add to that and in the NISA account receive a very good arrangement with that.

We are planning now to deal with the unfortunate situation we are in. But contrary to the member's party, we did not plan on taking close to $1.4 billion out of agriculture support in Canada.